Does the GTD apply to physical objects and locations?

[brinksbridge7]

Can "Reference," "Someday/Maybe," projects list, etc., be locations that hold physical objects? Or is GTD strictly list/folder based?

How do you categorize/conceptualize real locations for your physical items? For example, do you ever think of a bookshelf as "Reference," or a drawer holding random items as being "Someday/Maybe," etc.?

 

[Gardener]

Can "Reference," "Someday/Maybe," projects list, etc., be locations that hold physical objects? Or is GTD strictly list/folder based?

How do you categorize/conceptualize real locations for your physical items? For example, do you ever think of a bookshelf as "Reference," or a drawer holding random items as being "Someday/Maybe," etc.?

Personally, I want everything that is actionable or may become actionable to have at least a pointer in my system.

So I might have a bin of stuff I want to read, but I want my system to have something that refers to it--say, a monthly repeater that says, "Select and start reading something from the Stuff I Should Read bin."

I might have a box of the seeds that I'm thinking of planting in late spring, but my system will have an item, maybe with a start date in early spring, of, "Select crops from seeds in blue box." Or if the whole thing is totally optional (edit: what did I mean by "empty"?), that item will be in my Farm Ideas list in the Someday/Maybe area.

Reference, IMO, is not actionable and will be in all sorts of places.

 

[mcogilvie]

Can "Reference," "Someday/Maybe," projects list, etc., be locations that hold physical objects? Or is GTD strictly list/folder based?

How do you categorize/conceptualize real locations for your physical items? For example, do you ever think of a bookshelf as "Reference," or a drawer holding random items as being "Someday/Maybe," etc.?

Sure. ”Read and review” used to be a physical collection, but now it’s mostly digital (metaphysical? Literally means after physical). I wouldn’t overdo it; pointers in your lists make it harder to forget or ignore, as Gardener says.

 

[Oogiem]

Absolutely. Reference can be bookshelves, toolsheds,equipment and more. I often have actions that indicate where the reference material I will need is located especially if it's big or bulky.

 

[Dave Edwards]

Most of my reference material is now digital in Evernote. But for physical reference items they will be in specific locations:

I love gardening. I have lots of physical reference items (personal gardening journals, etc. ) that I store in my shed. But I have a summary list in Evernote so I know where I’ve put things.

The same thing with books I’ve read that are on my shelves. A master list is in Evernote.

If I don’t keep master lists, I tend to forget I have and where i have it.